Wood Nettle

Kendall County (IL) Forest Preserve District

Wood Nettle
Laportea canadensis [C-value 3]
Nettle family (Urticaceae)
Blooms July - September

The native Wood Nettle is common in our area. It prefers partial sun to medium shade and moist rich loamy soil. Habitats include moist floodplain or bottomland woodlands and shady seeps. This perennial grows to 4' tall with light green stems covered with stiff white stinging hairs. The lower leaves are alternate while the upper leaves are opposite, up to 6" long and 4" across, oval-pointed and coarsely toothed, on petioles up to 4" long with stinging hairs. The tiny male greenish-white flowers occur in branching cymes from the leaf axils and spread outward 3-4". The tiny green female flowers, about 1/8" across, occur in branching cymes at the top of the plant.

Wood Nettle at Baker Woods Forest Preserve August 6, 2013

Wood Nettle at Baker Woods Forest Preserve August 19, 2013

Note the cymes of female flowers at the top of the plant and cymes of male flowers underneath at the leaf axils.

Wood Nettle at Lyon Forest Preserve August 2. 2015

Wood Nettle at Baker Woods Forest Preserve August 19, 2013

The cymes of male flowers occur at leaf axils all along the stem.

Large colony of Wood Nettle at Lyon Forest Preserve August 2. 2015

Native Americans used the fibrous stems of Wood Nettle to make baskets and twine. The roots were used for several medicinal treatments including fevers, tuberculosis, urinary ailments and to facilitate childbirth. Reminder: see our Do Not Disturb Notice

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